Throughout the past year, children around the Sauk Valley have related to ten-year-old Phineas Quinn, a curious youngster who loves junk food and hatches a plan to avoid eating vegetables in the children’s book, Who Grew My Soup?

“When his mother serves him a bowl of vegetable soup, Phineas insists on knowing where the vegetables in his soup come from and wants to meet the farmers who grow them,” said Sherry DeWalt, CGH Community Health Educator. “Through the CGH Health Foundation’s Centennial Learning Garden Project, we have utilized this story to help educate area children about the importance of using fresh produce, eating healthy and increasing their physical activity.”

Now, as we bring in the harvest on this year’s crop, join us on Saturday, October 9 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Selmi’s Pumpkin Patch, 1206 Dixon Ave., Rock Falls, for the “Who Grew My Soup? Harvest Festival.” There will be a variety of fun activities for the whole family, a cooking demonstration, food samples and door prizes! In addition, the Sterling Public Library’s Sauk Valley Story Spinners will perform a theatrical reading of the book Who Grew My Soup? at noon and again at 1 p.m.

“The CGH Centennial Learning Garden Project is funded as part of the Foundation’s Health and Fitness Initiative,” said Joan Hermes, executive director of the Foundation. “The project yielded a great ‘harvest’ of excited kids and happy parents, as well as beautiful vegetables and herbs.”

For questions or more information about the Harvest Festival, please contact Sherry DeWalt at (815) 625-0400 ext. 5716.